After finishing 4-13 overall, 3-9 in the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference last season and hiring a new head coach, the Wilmington University lacrosse team was selected to finished fifth in the 2012 CACC pre-season coaches’ poll, announced today by the conference office.

In a vote by the leagues’ seven head coaches, Wilmington was tied with Chestnut Hill with 18 points for fifth place, ahead of Post in the seven team conference. Philadelphia was selected to win the conference, picking up four first place votes and 40 points overall. Two-time defending tournament champion Georgian Court picked up the other two first place votes and finished with 38 points.

New Wildcat head coach, Jackie Trainer, returns nine of the teams’ 13 point scorers from a year ago, a team in which Trainer was the assistant coach. Trainer and the Wildcats welcome back a pair of All-CACC performers from a season ago in First Team defender Jessica Graybeal and Second Team attacker Liz Case.

Case led the team with 23 assists last year, while also picking up the team’s third most goals (21) for a total of 44 points. Graybeal was the team’s top defender, starting in all 17 games while leading the team with 27 caused turnovers. She also added four goals and two assists on the offensive side of the field.

In addition to the nine returning point getters for the Wildcats, Trainer also inherits a starting goalkeeper that played every minute of all 17 games in goal last year. Corinne Dries made 154 saves on 478 shots faced as a freshman.

Holy Family and Dominican were picked to finish third in the pre-season coaches’ poll, each finishing with 24 points. Chestnut Hill and Wilmington followed in a tie for fifth place, while Post picked up six points and was selected to finished seventh.

The Wildcats open the 2012 campaign on March 2 when they travel to West Virginia Wesleyan for a 4 p.m. contest. The team’s first home game will be on March 13 as it hosts Millersville at 3 p.m. The CACC portion of the schedule begins four days later with an away game at Post at 12 noon.